1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch pad mounted on a notebook PC or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch pad is generally mounted on a notebook PC as a kind of pointing device. A user can operate a mouse pointer by tracing the touch pad with the finger. In recent years, a size of such a touch pad has been increased, and thus the palm easily comes into contact with the touch pad when a keyboard is operated. Thus, an operation error easily occurs.
Therefore, the following touch pad has been proposed. That is, in a case where a contact position is a peripheral portion on which the palm is frequently placed, it is determined that a contact region is formed by the palm if spatial characteristics (an area and an aspect ratio) corresponding to an area and a length of the contact region exceed a first condition corresponding to a predetermined area and length, and it is determined that the contact region is formed by the fingertip if the spatial characteristics do not exceed the first condition. In a case where a contact position is a central portion on which the fingertip is frequently placed, it is determined that a contact region is formed by the palm if the spatial characteristics exceed a second condition corresponding to an area and a length larger than the first condition, and it is determined that the contact region is formed by the fingertip if the spatial characteristics do not exceed the second condition.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2015-32177 is an example of the related art.
As mentioned above, in the related art, there is a need for a touch pad which can effectively prevent an operation error caused by the palm and allows a normal operation using the fingertip to be smoothly performed.